Stéphane Xiberras of BETC Paris: my Top Tips for Cannes

Stéphane Xiberras (below) has been president and CCO of BETC Paris since 2007. BETC Paris is, by any measure, one of the very best creative agencies in the world and Xiberras is in charge of one of its signature accounts, Canal+. Canal+ ad ‘The Bear’ won the Cannes Lion Grand Prix Film Craft in 2012 and is the most awarded ad ever by the Gunn Report.

BETC now includes BETC Digital, BETC Pop, BETC Luxe, BETC Design, BETC Content plus the BETC Academy and the BETC Start UP Lab, both of which Xiberras founded. He is also the inventor of CAI (Creative Artificial Intelligence) a unique software robot that creates ads to demonstrate the downside of that industry. He began his career as a copywriter.

My Top Tips for Cannes

I probably won’t win an award for originality with my selection, but either way, if the campaigns mentioned below don’t win a Gold Lion I’ll eat my beret (with a fresh baguette to help it down)!

Rei’s #OptOutside: everything has been said on this amazing campaign. For me it represents all that creativity is about: be where no one expects you to, or even better – do the exact opposite of what’s expected. And please give an extra medal to the people who convinced the client that this campaign was a good idea (hey, you’re going to lose loads of money but believe us, it will be great!).

Airbnb Van Gogh: brilliant, clever, opportunistic. I love it when we desecrate art and play with it. It’s a nice change to the typical ultra boring campaigns for museums and operas that no one gives a crap about.

Harvey Nichols Shoplifters: what an amazing idea (I’m sure it wasn’t easy to find a new angle after the great “Spent it on myself”- campaign), and so brilliantly executed (and cheap I’d say!). This one is a real reference in terms of an intelligent campaign. Gold and maybe more I’d say..

The ‘McWhopper proposal’ has to be one of the best marketing stunts of the year and the perfect PR campaign. It raised awareness for Peace Day and made Burger King even more popular, very clever.